Date of Award:
5-2001
Document Type:
Thesis
Degree Name:
Master of Science (MS)
Department:
Human Development and Family Studies
Department name when degree awarded
Family and Human Development
Committee Chair(s)
Thorana S. Nelson
Committee
Thorana S. Nelson
Abstract
The field of marriage and family therapy (MFT) has prospered since its beginnings nearly 50 years ago. In order to keep the field current and competitive with other related professions, empirical research is necessary. Although there has been an upsurge of research on the effectiveness and specialty areas of MFT, one area has been overlooked: skills. The empirical research that has been performed has focused its attention on beginning therapists. The current research took the next step in determining family therapy skills and investigated the skills needed by intermediate-level therapists--not beginners, yet also not advanced therapists.
This research surveyed a panel of supervision experts in the MFT profession who work with intermediate-level therapists in order to determine the skills that intermediate-level therapists need to possess. In total, 249 skills were rated by the panel of experts, with mean scores of importance ranging between 1.02 and 3.26 on a scale of 1-5. Further, the findings indicate that many of the skills needed by intermediate-level therapists are the same skills thought to be important for beginning therapists, identified in previous research. Of the top 25 ranked items in the Basic Family Therapy Skills project that were rated in the current Intermediate Family Therapy Skills project, 22 of the items' means differed less than .25 in their ratings. Overall, most of the nominated items were rated between "very important" and "important." Implications for training and further research are discussed.
Checksum
977bc6528945151cf3fee44a0d3c98a5
Recommended Citation
Smietana, Shannon L., "Intermediate Family Therapy Skills" (2001). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023. 2624.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/2624
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